That is how many cavaliers have now been scanned, primarily for breeders, using funds donated by people like you to Rupert's Fund!!! We have also surpassed £13,500 in donations in 18 months.

:wggle:

Thanks so much to all who have helped support this CavalierTalk project in so many different ways!

29th July 2011, 12:57 AM

GraciesMom

Awesome news Karlin!!!

Thank you for telling the impact this is having. I am so proud to be part of supporting this effort. Wish I could do more!

29th July 2011, 03:47 AM

Cathy T

That is absolutely amazing!!! What a fabulous grassroots effort that has gone global. Hats off to all involved, you should be immensely proud of what you've accomplished.cl*p

29th July 2011, 11:07 AM

Karen and Ruby

WOW!!!!]

:w*w:b*n*n*#

Thats great stuff!!!

29th July 2011, 11:20 AM

Karlin

A project like this really goes to show how much impact individuals can have, and especially I think for so many of us, pet owners who might otherwise feel they cannot take an active role in significant research projects or know how money is actually used. All of these donations go directly to researchers (and I would like to especially thank Nicki and Tania and Margaret on the board, who have all helped organize and manage large numbers of donations and various fundraising projects).

Before these funds were available to researchers, they had to hope to persuade breeders and pet owners to cover the costs of these scans themselves. For many, especially those who already might be scanning many dogs at significant cost to help research, the priority would understandably be to scan their dogs of breeding age. The ability to make the scans free has had an enormous impact for these research projects and helped to produce so much important data on the progression of this condition, and to identify dogs and therefore lines that are promising in the hunt for information that will help breeders breed away from this health issue.

The fund is now involved with a breeder–organized scanning project for older Cavaliers in Canada, which will help with the Canadian-based international SM genome project. Scans also support UK-based research for the genome project and other studies.

To give some context, many of the existing research studies would have had far fewer than 42 dogs, much less 42 carefully chosen by pedigree for the likelihood that they might scan clear of syringomyelia. This really is a very significant source of data, and many clear older dogs have been identified.

Older male dogs –especially studs– remain a priority for the researchers as this information would be so valuable for research, for the breed's future, and for breeders themselves.

I am delighted to say that because of the amount of funding that has been raised and the strength of continuing support, and growing breeder interest internationally, Rupert's Fund is also beginning to help fund some other research projects in addition to scans. I am going to be redoing the website to explain this more fully, so that people can see where their money is going and breeders and pet owners can see how the various projects can benefit them and the breed.

29th July 2011, 01:06 PM

Nicki

Thank you so much Karlin for the brilliant :updte:

It's really encouraging to hear how the money is being used, and to hear how much is it helping the research. I know that it takes many hours of work and often months of waiting to even possibly obtain grants, so it's great that we can help - every £1 entry for the calendar and support for the auctions and other fund raising projects, really does help.